CENTRE FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY METHODOLOGIES

Transcription

1 CENTRE FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY METHODOLOGIES Postgraduate Programmes 2018/19 MA Digital Media and Culture MSc/PG Dip/PG Cert Big Data and Digital Futures MSc Urban Informatics and Analytics

2 IT S NOT WHAT YOU KNOW, OR WHO YOU KNOW, BUT HOW YOU KNOW THAT MATTERS. As the world continues to be transformed by data, analytics, media and digital processes, there is an ever-increasing demand for interdisciplinary skills and knowledge. Our societies, cultures, institutions and cities are increasingly networked, and 21st century careers require both joined-up thinking and the ability to develop innovative solutions. At the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies (CIM), we nurture creative and critical approaches that will help you open doors to a variety of emerging career paths. Our wide-ranging postgraduate courses give you the perfect platform to approach 21st century concerns: What are the opportunities and challenges of big data? How do digital sensors offer new ways to shape smart cities? How can social media help us get a grip on world-changing events? Our three postgraduate courses offer the opportunity to develop your skills and knowledge in new and exciting ways whatever your background. Our diverse cohort of students come from disciplines such as sociology, mathematics, geography, communications, animation and the theatrical arts. We embrace this broad mix of expertise, and allow you to tailor your studies around your own ambitions and research interests through our equally broad range of research and research-led teaching. You ll find a range of the modules we have on offer at CIM throughout this brochure, but our offering is constantly evolving to reflect the needs of our students and the world around us. 02 CENTRE FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY METHODOLOGIES At CIM, you won t be an anonymous student in a large department. Our close-knit community will offer you regular and direct access to teaching staff, as well as opportunities to work closely on projects with your fellow Master s students, PhDs and faculty. Our teaching team includes experts in areas ranging from computer science and sociology, to media studies, design, architecture and anthropology. With regular computer lab sessions for many modules, whether you re already an advanced programmer or you re just starting out, you ll have plenty of opportunities to develop and strengthen your practical skills. You ll also develop leadership and team-building skills through group projects and interactive tasks, which have previously included a Data Dive at the Shard in London, data sketching workshops, or an analytics boot camp, depending on your chosen course. warwick.ac.uk/cim 03

3 DEVELOP THE SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE YOU NEED Across our three programmes, you ll find an array of optional modules* to either deepen your knowledge from your core study, or add further breadth to an already diverse year of study. Many of our modules are available to students across more than one of our programmes. But with so much to choose from, how do you decide what to study? To help get you thinking about the areas that could be most relevant to you, take a look at some of the optional modules our students have studied recently. URBAN RESILIENCE, DISASTERS AND DATA This five day intensive module is aimed at introducing the topics of disaster risks and urban resilience with emphasis on the use of innovative digital technologies to gather and analyse urban data for improving disaster resilience. It approaches, theoretically and practically, the main issues involved in disaster resilience and the way in which social media, mobile technologies and the web are related to our collective experience of disasters and crisis events. By means of a practical project and field work conducted in the city of Coventry, you ll learn how to collect urban data using open-source mobile data collection software, process and analyse this data with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications and produce an interactive digital map to visualise urban aspects related to disaster resilience. USER INTERFACE CULTURES: DESIGN, METHOD AND CRITIQUE This module focuses on graphical user interfaces for web and mobile apps to critically explore the economic, technical, aesthetic and political dimensions of contemporary interface cultures. Your studies will foster and explore critical and technical knowledge of interfaces through a number of experimental methods for interface research and criticism that form practical investigations of not only what an interface is, but also how it is designed. You ll be introduced to a number of commercial interface design methods, with the aim of developing an understanding of the interface industry, and equally with the aim of repurposing methods for experimental research. Source material spans computer science, design theory, art practice and new media studies, which you will use to unpick what an interface is, how it relates to you and what is embedded in its design. VISUALISATION Data visualisations have become an everyday means to make sense of data, and are becoming a fundamental currency for exchanging information. In this module you ll examine the highly interdisciplinary subject of visualisation from a wide variety of perspectives such as cartography, statistics, architecture, information design, and science and technology studies. Through lectures, coding labs and other practical lab sessions, you will investigate how encoding data and information within graphics alters how we receive and process information, and the relationships we develop with that information. Through the module you will develop the analytical skills and knowledge to think critically about how visualisations support, alter or intervene in our relationships with information and the worlds that the visualisations explicitly or implicitly represent. At the same time you will learn how to create visualisations (using the programming language 'R, or through data sketching) and understand the limits of visualisation as a set of methods. DIGITAL CITIES This module explores the potentials and challenges for digital technologies, big data and urban analytics within smart city projects. The module is based on seven guest lectures from researchers and practitioners from external industry, government and academic organisations, as well as from expertise drawn from the University of Warwick. The lecture topics range from Smart Urban Governance and Citizen Participation, to Wellbeing, Health and Social Inequalities, in order to understand different disciplinary perspectives and methods in research on cities and the current challenges faced by cities across the world. DIGITAL SOCIOLOGY In this module, you ll study how digital innovation is enabling new ways of knowing society in terms of online surveillance, behavioural analytics and real-time research. What are the implications of this for the relations between social science, computing and society? You ll examine new forms of computational social science in the first half of the course, and the intense debates they have sparked in recent years. Do the sensational claims for a new computational science of society hold up? Do we really need new methods in order to study digital societies? What are the implications of the rise of computational sociology for the relations between social research and social life? During the second half of the course you will revisit these questions in hands-on seminars and lab sessions where you will experiment with digital methods in order to imagine new ways of practising sociology with technology. *Many of the core modules for our courses are also available as optional modules for other courses. Please see our website, warwick.ac.uk/cim, for a full list of available modules across the department. 04 CENTRE FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY METHODOLOGIES warwick.ac.uk/cim 05

4 MSC URBAN INFORMATICS AND ANALYTICS With the Department of Computer Science For the first time in history, more than half of the world s population lives in urban areas - towns and cities that are increasingly connected and influenced by smart technologies. Urban Informatics and Analytics is an emerging interdisciplinary approach to addressing the urban challenges arising from these developments. Our unique MSc develops the practical skills needed such as data analytics and visualisation techniques to tackle these challenges, combining practice with cutting-edge theoretical and methodological understanding of urban systems. Our course offers you: Deep understanding of urban science and digital cities Practical and analytical skills to explore, visualise and make sense of city-scale spatial data Interdisciplinary methodological skills to design solutions to the world s urban challenges capitalising on emerging developments in big data analytics and digital technologies IS THIS COURSE FOR ME? Francisco Contreras Marroquin, MSc Urban Informatics and Analytics Our students have come from disciplines including urban planning, computer science, sociology and politics, to name a few. Most importantly, our students share an ambition to learn how to apply urban data science to real-life urban environments. We also welcome applications from professionals related to city management or planning. WHERE WILL IT TAKE ME? Through your core modules Spatial Methods and Practice in Urban Science; Urban Data Theory and Methodology; and a Dissertation you ll gain a broad foundation of knowledge and skills to approach the world s urban challenges. The MSc in Urban Informatics and Analytics equips you for future opportunities within business, government, NGOs and the third sector, where expertise in using analytics and data science to solve urban problems is increasingly essential. 06 CENTRE FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY METHODOLOGIES In Foundations of Data Analytics, for example, you will develop foundational skills in data analytics using a variety of tools including 'R', the programming language that is taught in a variety of modules across CIM. This module is taught by the Department of Computer Science and develops your technical skills so that you can go from raw data to a deeper understanding of the patterns and structures within the data, to support making predictions and decision making. Starting with examples of analytics work at Google, Netflix, Kaggle and Facebook, you ll cover topics such as data ethics and data sharing alongside core statistical skills including regression, classification and clustering. "For me, the most interesting part of the course is applying what I ve learned in creating maps with QGIS. Learning how to improve interfaces and visualise data has been really helpful throughout the year. No-one tells you what is going to be best or look best. You try different things, and it s helpful to open your mind and be more artistic, so you can show different information." Unlike most existing courses that focus exclusively on data practices and tools, our interdisciplinary course combines training in theoretical approaches to urban life with practice-based methodological skills. Across the course, you ll develop an understanding of social theories and their application, learning to make informed decisions supported by urban data analytics. WHAT WILL I STUDY? Across your core modules, you ll cover topics ranging from the foundations of urban theory, to advanced use of spatial methods and geographic information systems, while exploring at a deep level the limits of various data and methodologies. Beyond this, you ll be free to choose from a wide range of optional modules, many of which will directly give you opportunities to develop the skills you ll have been learning in your core modules. WHAT OPTIONAL MODULES MIGHT BE RELEVANT? The MSc can also be a springboard to a range of careers where you can apply your data analytics and visualisation skills, such as Data Journalism, Finance, Health Care, and Business Analytics. A number of our students have chosen to continue their academic studies through an MPhil/PhD in Urban Science, Interdisciplinary Studies and other relevant disciplines. warwick.ac.uk/cim 07

5 PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE Learning to apply the theoretical skills you ll learn at CIM is at the heart of our MSc Urban Informatics and Analytics programme. That s why each year, if you re studying this programme, you ll be invited to join a Data Dive at the Shard in London. Working with other students from Warwick, King s College London and New York s Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) over the course of four days, this is your chance to tackle a real-life urban issue, using a wide range of live data sources. Recent events have included looking into London s evening and night-time economy, with students investigating and discussing the possibility of policies which could help improve evenings and nights in London for everyone, based on a huge range of data. As part of the event, you ll have access to a wide range of data relevant to the theme of the Data Dive. Previous events have seen students given access to live data from Westminster City Council and across the Greater London area from local footfall and licences, to tweets and tube journeys. You ll work in in mixed groups alongside students with diverse backgrounds, finding new and intriguing ways to interpret data: from analysing the sentiment of thousands of tweets, to creating innovative visual ways of presenting consumer spending and transport patterns. 08 CENTRE FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY METHODOLOGIES Previous events have culminated in visits from representatives of local London Councillors and others, all of whom are always very interested to discuss and engage with the research students have undertaken. One local Councillor and chairman at Westminster City Council even commented that a recent Data Dive on air pollution in the capital had made an important contribution to policy change in the capital. Events like the Data Dive provide an unparalleled opportunity to put theoretical skills into practice, and investigate potential solutions to real world problems. The MSc Urban Informatics and Analytics course will ensure you benefit from regular hands-on experience like this throughout the year, such as gathering and finding positive applications for data in the local area, and a number of diverse individual and group projects. Our wide-ranging collaborative links at CIM make opportunities like this possible. I ve learned something every day on this Data Dive. All the partners and other members of my group are such experts in data analysis. They ve all got more experience than me, and I m even working directly with my teachers. I ve felt involved in the whole week. It s been challenging but really fun. I really appreciate having this opportunity to do something so relevant to what I ve been studying. I d definitely recommend it for future students thinking about courses. I came here to learn more, and have contact with experts, and I ve definitely done that. Haokun Fu MSc Urban Informatics and Analytics warwick.ac.uk/cim 09

6 MSC BIG DATA AND DIGITAL FUTURES With the Warwick Q-Step centre This course is also offered as a Postgraduate Diploma (PG Dip) (9 months full-time / 12 months part-time) and Postgraduate Certificate (PG Cert) (6 months full-time / 12 months part-time). This degree responds directly to the growing demand by employers for a new generation of postgraduates who can critically engage with big data theoretically, methodologically and practically. In contrast to many big data-focused degrees (such as Data Science or Data Analytics) where the emphasis is almost exclusively on data practices and computational tools, this degree underpins key practical skills with a range of theoretical approaches to data. How is our world influenced by big data? How are our lives represented in big data? The MSc Big Data and Digital futures will enable you whatever your disciplinary background to understand and act in a society transformed by data, networks and computation and develop a range of interdisciplinary capacities. WHAT WILL I STUDY? Through your core modules Big Data Research: Hype or Revolution?; Fundamentals in Quantitative Research Methods; Advanced Quantitative Research; and a Dissertation you ll gain a broad foundation of knowledge and skills to both technically and theoretically engage with a host of digital and big data-based challenges. Across your core modules, you ll explore in depth the potential applications of big data throughout everyday life, including industry, government and the charity sector, while developing your understanding of quantitative research 10 CENTRE FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY METHODOLOGIES and data science methods, from probability and statistical inference to agent-based simulation. Beyond this, you ll be free to choose from a wide range of optional modules, many of which will directly allow you to build on the skills you ll have been learning in your core modules. IS THIS COURSE FOR ME? Whatever your disciplinary background, our MSc Big Data and Digital Futures could be the perfect way for you to learn more about the ways in which data and digital processes play a role in everyday life. We re looking for applicants who can demonstrate an ability to work creatively, and who have a particular interest in big data and digital futures in general. WHAT OPTIONAL MODULES MIGHT BE RELEVANT? You might consider Complexity in the Social Sciences another of our 5-day intensive modules in which you ll gain an introduction to, and critique of, the main quantitative approaches for modelling complex social systems. Through lectures, labs and group work, you will investigate complex systems through different methodological approaches. Teaching staff on the module are drawn from CIM, Mathematics, Psychology, Statistics, Economics and the Warwick Business School, allowing a broad examination of the diverse techniques and concepts used in understanding complex systems in terms of scale, networks, flows, logic and games. The uniqueness of this program was the main factor that attracted me to the MSc at Warwick. This degree program is different compared to other Big Data courses offered in the market. Its aim is not focused solely on teaching students what tools to use to analyse Big Data, but it rather teaches concepts and methodologies that question the essence of using specific data to find new insights and answer particular questions. Thus, this degree prepares you for the future with the long-term view in mind rather than focusing what is only temporary and short-term. After finishing my Master s, my long-term career aspiration would be opening my own consulting company, which would specialise in Big Data. Edvin Dudinskij MSc Big Data and Digital Futures WHERE WILL IT TAKE ME? A Master s in Big Data and Digital Futures from CIM will give you the skills to follow an academic or professional career working in knowledge-based companies, NGOs, and in such fields as information policy, new media production, public relations, or administration and entrepreneurship in big data and digital culture-based companies. Our MSc will also set you up for further academic studies including our MPhil/PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies, or other relevant disciplines. Likewise, a Postgraduate Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate will give you an excellent foundation in big data practice and theory, allowing you to gain specific research skills important to your career in in a relatively short period of time. warwick.ac.uk/cim 11

7 MA DIGITAL MEDIA AND CULTURE WHAT OPTIONAL MODULES MIGHT BE RELEVANT? Digital media are set to dominate 21st century culture and society. This course gives you the opportunity to study digital media and to be trained in tools to understand and make use of it critically and creatively. While the fields of media and communication study the dynamics of film, television, radio and the press, this course addresses how digital processes are transforming culture, the economy and society. Combining theory with interdisciplinary methods, it gives you a critical and practice-based understanding of how digital media and culture is being transformed by networks, algorithms and software; by memes, trolls, likes and links; by uploads and downloads; by big data, personal data and trash. IS THIS COURSE FOR ME? WHAT WILL I STUDY? WHERE WILL IT TAKE ME? Through your core modules Approaches to the Digital; a Dissertation; and Digital Objects; Digital Methods you ll gain a deep understanding of some of the most important challenges and debates within the areas of digital media and culture in the 21st century. This degree equips you to follow a professional career in knowledge-based workplaces, whether these are museums or marketing agencies, businesses or charities, new media production companies, editing and copywriting companies, or public relations firms and think-tanks. It also provides you with an excellent academic background to pursue issues in digital media at the doctoral level. Across your core modules, you ll follow a trajectory through the different layers of digital culture, from infrastructure to memes and beyond, while also gaining an insight into new and emerging societal and cultural entities and methodologies. Beyond your core programme of study, you ll be free to choose from a wide range of optional modules which will allow you to build on the skills you ll have been learning in your core modules, as well as exploring new areas of interest to you. 12 CENTRE FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY METHODOLOGIES This course is aimed at students from a range of disciplinary backgrounds who want to learn more about the emerging field of digital culture and media. Although no specific background is required, your application must demonstrate an ability to work creatively and independently as well as an interest in contemporary developments in digital media and culture. In Ethnography, Knowledge and Practice, for example, you ll have the chance to carry out detailed studies of ethnography as a method of study, writing and theory with a focus on knowledge production. How are architectural designs defined? How is medical knowledge enacted in diagnosis and treatment? How are the documents of international agreements made? How are facts created in a laboratory? During the module's seminars you ll examine how participant observation provides a method that accounts for the complexities and particularities of the sites where knowledge is produced. Or you might consider Playful Media: Ludification in the Digital Age, a six-day intensive module that immerses you in the evolving field of game and play studies, with a particular focus on the changing role of play in contemporary media culture. You ll learn how concepts of play have developed, how play relates to culture and how ideologies and power become embedded in games. Using a variety of activities such as iterative game design you ll explore methods of analysing and critiquing games and playful activities. During the module you will carry out group work, and even participate in a Game Jam and a Minecraft field excursion! After my undergraduate degree, I worked as a practising digital artist for a few years before the realisation that I wanted to get more involved in work that lived in the cross-section between education, digital accessibility and creative practices. The research I undertook within the modules in CIM led me onto my dissertation topic which has in turn informed my PhD research question, so it has been quite a natural progression to where I am now, currently working on a PhD project as part of the Seeing Data network at the University of Leeds. One of the most important skills I learned on the course was in terms of research design. I came from a more practice-based background so I found the work around initiating, designing and undertaking a research project to be invaluable going forward. Arran Ridley MA Digital Media and Culture warwick.ac.uk/cim 13

8 WHERE WILL CIM TAKE YOU? There s no set background for joining CIM, so it s no surprise that our graduates aren t restricted in their career paths either. Our courses focus on deep interdisciplinary skills that will help you excel in areas as diverse as urban and data science, digital media, publishing, local councils, international consultancy, charities, and further research at PhD level and beyond. To give you a flavour of where CIM could take you, we spoke to recent graduate Isabella Calabreta about her experience at Warwick and beyond: Among all the universities I had considered, Warwick was the one that showed a clear intention behind its module choices. The website provided me with an exciting overview of the subjects, with reading suggestions that I found fascinating. I was looking for a university that would nurture me as a person, and also as a student, and the campus was the perfect location for that. The most interesting aspect of the course for me was working as a researcher in group with my classmates. The laboratories and the lectures that would prepare us for the fieldwork were the most enjoyable moments, giving us the chance to engage with interactive tools and methods. Beyond that, I loved the opportunity to engage with literature in the digital age. I ve always been interested in literature, but never had to study the medium that the book represents, most certainly not in its digital form. The modules at CIM gave me a much clearer idea of what I wanted to do with my life, and where my interests were. Since CIM, I ve worked on a number of projects, including helping to curate the content of an Artificial Intelligence website, assisting with user experience testing and research platform, writing for a data-journalism blog focused on Open Data news, and managing a varied number of blogs on movies, literature and sub-culture. I ve worked as a Digital Publishing Intern at the Institute of Network Cultures, researching the disruption in the reading flow of the longform, and I am now lucky enough to cover a role that fulfils all my interests, as Online Publishing Assistant at Cambridge University Press. Isabella Calabreta studied MA Digital Media and Culture with CIM following her BA in Foreign Literature and Languages at the University of Catania. ENTRY REQUIREMENTS We normally require a first or upper second class undergraduate degree. Please see our website for more information and international equivalents. Fees for students on our full-time Master's courses for 2018/19 are set at 9,440 for Home/EU students; for Overseas students fees are set at 20,160. If your first language is not English, we normally require a minimum score of 7.0 in IELTS or equivalent. Please see warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/cim/study for details. For full details on fees and finance, including the latest details on funding and scholarships, visit warwick.ac.uk/study/ postgraduate/funding. We are especially open to discussing applications from mature students who may have come to higher education through a range of diverse routes. Where possible we consider all eligible applicants for bursaries and scholarships while funds are available, so we encourage early applications from those who d like to be considered. We consider each application on its merits, so please get in touch with us to discuss course eligibility if you are unclear about entry requirements or have any questions. What CIM has taught me first and foremost is how to conduct research and how to critically evaluate its result in light of our current political environment. Those who choose to study media are most likely people fascinated by the fluid reality of the internet, and will hopefully feel in CIM what I felt on my first day: that I had finally met my peers. 14 CENTRE FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY METHODOLOGIES FEES AND FINANCE COURSE LAPTOPS All students on CIM degrees require a laptop computer for their studies. This is provided by the department for students to use and keep, and the cost is included in course fees. Course information was accurate at the time of printing (11/2017). Our course and module content and schedule is continually reviewed and updated to reflect the latest research expertise at Warwick, so it is therefore very important that you check the website for the latest information before you apply and when you accept an offer. See our website for the latest information.

9 Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies Social Sciences The University of Warwick Coventry CV4 7AL +44 (0)